Check us out... online

Did you know that we have more than just books? Many still believe that libraries only have books. Yes, even today in our wondrous world of technology people still think this is true. In fact, we have over 35,000 full-text journals available through our library in electronic form that is convenient, searchable and much easier to work with in your research. The American Library Association is also trying to raise awareness with their recent posting of The E’s of Libraries.

Come in and check it out for yourselves! We have over 90 computers on our 4^th floor. including 10 iMac’s, and a gaming room with PCs and iMacs. We also have laptops and iPads that you can check out and use inside the library.

Are you required to do a presentation? Do you want to practice beforehand? We can also help with that. There are 2 presentation rooms that are specially set up for this purpose. Walk-ins are welcome on a first come–first serve basis if the room is available, and students in select professor-approved classes can reserve these rooms online for up to four hours per day. See our practice room reservations page for more information.

And, if you need help with that research paper you’ve been postponing until the last possible moment, our reference librarians are always happy to help.

Check out our hours and then come check us out!

President Bogomolny on WYPR's Humanities Connection

On the drive home tonight, I listened to a compelling argument for a broad liberal arts education from UB's President, Bob Bogomolny. He acknowledged that the world today is changing at such a rate that students must prepare for not one career but a lifetime of multiple careers. No one can predict today what the critical jobs will be in 2040 any more than anyone could predict today's positions in web development and social media as little as 20 years ago.

President Bogomolny articulately argued the importance of the humanities in education and the value of critical thinking and problem solving across the curriculum. Listen to his full essay on WYPR or learn more about the series, Humanities Connection at the Maryland Humanities Council.

Welcome to A Few New Faces!

This summer Langsdale is fortunate to be joined by two budding librarians, Lindsay and Rachel. You may have seen their faces at the reference desk over the last few weeks or months. Now is your chance to learn a little bit more about them and what they’re doing here:

Lindsay has a master’s degree in library science from the University of Maryland. She has been loving her time at Langsdale and appreciates the variety of questions students ask at the reference desk because she gets to learn something new every shift. Lindsay currently works full-time at another career and we’re lucky to have her one night a week. She hopes to transition into the library field and wants to continue working with students in higher education or high school. When Lindsay is not at Langsdale or working at her other career she stays very busy. She plays rugby for the Chesapeake Women’s Rugby Football Club in Baltimore City. She has played for eleven years and been playing for the Chessie for more than five years. She finds that it’s a great community of athletes and a home away from home.  Please stop by and say, “Hi,” to Lindsay if you see her at the reference desk!

Rachel is dangerously close to receiving her master’s in library science from Drexel University. One of her final hurdles is completing her practicum at Langsdale, though we’re trying not to be too hard on her.  She has been enjoying her time at Langsdale thus far and has enjoyed meeting the students, library guests and librarians. Rachel is interested in librarianship because it allows her to support research, learning and curiosity. She loves research and trying to figure out how to make it easier and more effective. Her experience at Langsdale gives her the opportunity to apply what she has learned in school to the “real world.” When she leaves Langsdale, Rachel hopes to become a full-fledged librarian at a college or public library somewhere in the Baltimore area. If you see Rachel at the reference desk, please stop by and say, “Hi,” or ask her a challenging reference question!

Get to Know: Phil DeLoria

With such success last summer finding out information about the staff of Langsdale Library, we are bringing you four new faces from our library staff for you to "get to know."

This past winter, Phil DeLoria, the University Archivist in our Special Collections library, shared with the staff some of his bookbinding talents. Now we can share some of his art with our library users.

Q: We asked Phil about how his interest in bookbinding started. Here is his response:

I have always appreciated fine books, but while I was an undergraduate Classical Studies student, I had a job with the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection where I got to know the Senior Conservator, Leyla Lau-Lamb, who was also a bookbinder. She encouraged me in my interest, and directed me to a few books that outlined the process of bookbinding. The following year, I had an internship with Jim Craven, a master bookbinder with over 50 years of service to the University. Since, I have enjoyed binding books, journals, and sketchbooks for my personal use and for select acquaintances.

Congratulations UB Graduates!

In honor of commencement season, and more importantly, our own UB graduation ceremonies this week, take a peek at some performances of the traditional Graduation march "Pomp and Circumstance"


Congratulations Graduates. March on!

UB Post Available Online

Langsdale Library’s Special Collections has been working in partnership with the UB Post staff and student workers to make a collection of back issues of the student newspaper kept in the university archives available online. Recent digital back issues and digitized versions of older issues are available from 1981 to the present day. Special Collections will continue to work on making older issues available on an ad hoc basis until the entire collection has been digitized. The oldest issue held in the university archives dates to 1933, so another 50 years of the paper have yet to be completed.

The collection should be of particular interest to UB alumni and former faculty, administrators, and staff. This resource is an excellent representation of the history of the university though the eyes of its students and a reflection of how the student body responds to contemporary issues. They are also a nice way to get a sense of how the campus and university traditions, like the block party, have developed over time.

Those who would like to volunteer to help with continued digitization should contact Philip Deloria, university archivist at pdeloria@ubalt.edu

By Philip Deloria

UB Faculty publish Baltimore '68

UB Faculty members Jessica I. Elfenbein, Thomas L. Hollowak and Elizabeth M. Nix recently published Baltimore '68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City.

This book offers chapters on events leading up to the turmoil, the riots, and the aftermath as well as four rigorously edited and annotated oral histories of members of the Baltimore community. The combination of new scholarship and first-person accounts provides a comprehensive case study of this period of civil unrest four decades later.

This engaging, broad-based public history lays bare the diverse experiences of 1968 and their effects, emphasizing the role of specific human actions. By reflecting on the stories and analysis presented in this anthology, readers may feel empowered to pursue informed, responsible civic action of their own.

Baltimore '68 is the book component of a larger public history project, "Baltimore '68 Riots: Riots and Rebirth." The project's companion website (http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/index.html) offers many more oral histories plus photos, art, and links to archival sources. The book and the website together make up an invaluable teaching resource on cities, social unrest, and racial politics in the 1960s. The project was the co-recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Public History Project Award from the National Council on Public History.

Open Access: What is it and why does it matter?

Attention students, faculty, staff, and administrators: Do you know about Open Access and how it relates to all of us in the UB community?

"Open access (OA) is a worldwide movement wherein full-text scholarly articles are completely free and unrestricted to all users to read, copy, download, and distribute over the World Wide Web."
(Western Carolina University's Glossary of Library Lingo)

Specific interest groups, including the scientific research community and academic librarians, have been grappling with OA issues for years. Increasingly, however, conversations about open access are occurring across departments and divisions on college and university campuses. All members of the UB community have a vested interest in being aware of the issues associated with access to scholarly publications, including faculty who publish in peer-reviewed journals to further scholarship in their fields and advance their careers, librarians who acquire and provide access to these publications in print or online, students who use these resources in the pursuit of education, and administrators who make policy and budgetary decisions.

For a quick and entertaining introduction to the OA movement, check out this video: Open Access Manifesto. Peter Suber, an Earlham College philosophy professor turned OA policy strategist, provides a more comprehensive overview.

Want to see some OA journals? The Directory of Open Access Journals will connect you to thousands of scholarly and scientific journals which are available in full-text for free. Browse the DOAJ's listings (currently 4570 journals!) by subject category.

Open access issues are currently making news headlines as a result of the Obama administration's interest in public access to taxpayer-funded research. The President's Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently hosting a Public Access Policy Forum on its blog, and the deadline for comments and responses from the public is extended through January 21st, 2010.

If you'd like to know more about the OA movement, you're in luck -- there's a wealth of information available through the web. Here are a few highlights:

The Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook
Are you a student? Administrator? Researcher? OASIS has customized information for each of these categories based on what type of user you are.

Open Access in 2009: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This blog post by Richard Poynder is exactly what it sounds like -- a year-end review about all things OA.

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
SPARC is a one-stop shop for news, articles, videos, and links about the effort "to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system."

ACRL's Scholarly Communication Toolkit
The Association of College and Research Libraries created this toolkit as "an educational resource primarily directed to librarians," but it provides useful overviews of interrelated issues, including authors' rights, journal economics, open access archiving, and new models of publishing.

Read all about Langsdale: The Fall 08 Langsdale Link is here!

This semester's edition of the Langsdale Link (the official Newsletter of Langsdale Library) is chock-full of information about Langsdale and its services. Here is what you can find "inside":

• Welcome from the new director
  New Library Director Lucy Holman provides an overview of the Link and explains that she is not exactly new to UB.
  
• Alert, Alert!: Tables of Contents and other stuff
  Get tables of contents from your favorite journals and new articles on your favorite topic delivered to your inbox or via an RSS feed.
  
• Citing Sources gets Easier with Zotero
  Looking for an easier way to manage your citations without having to purchase EndNote or ProCite? Zotero is a free citation manager available for use with Firefox.
  
• No Parking, No Problem: Save Time and Travel with Langsdale
  Langsdale has a bevy of services available to you, even if you never step foot in our building.
  
• Leading Langsdale Library
  With the arrival of a new director, we take a look back at past Langsdale Directors.
  
• Langsdale is looking for a few good books
  Donate your unwanted books to the Langsdale Booksale. Replace them with new books at the Langsdale booksale.
  
• New Databases at Langsdale Library
  Even more information is available to you online.
  
• Meet Our New Staff
  What is a librarian's favorite book? Television show? Find out in our non-representative sample.
  

NEW: Women's History Month Resources

In celebration of Women's History Month, Langsdale Library is highlighting works that touch on this year's theme: "Generations of Women Moving History Forward." We have also highlighted some other works by or about women that may be of interest.

Here's a link to the page: http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/howto/whm_guide.htm

For more resources, please see our Women's Studies Guide.

You can get to these guides and many others by looking under the gray Use It menu on the library's homepage, then click on Research Help by Discipline.

Textbooks for your courses?

To get a jump-start on the book-buying, a lot of students want to find out what textbooks are required for their classes at UB. Although Langsdale Library doesn’t keep a list of the textbooks for each class, the UB Bookstore does:

http://www.bkstr.com/CategoryDisplay/10001-9604-10280-1?demoKey=d

Enjoy!

Find It at UB through Google Scholar and Live Academic Search

Several popular search engines have created specialized search engines to help people find scholarly information on the internet. Two of these, Google Scholar and Microsoft's Live Academic Search , have the added bonus of providng links to UB's "Find It" menu. If you are using a computer on campus and find an article through either of these search engines, the results will include a "Find It @ UB" link. Clicking on this link will tell you if the article in question is available through Langsdale's print or database collections. Many times the articles found by these search engines will only lead to abstracts or will require you to purchase an article to view the full text. What they won't normally tell you is if the full text is already available to you through Langsdale. The "Find It @ UB" link is a quick and easy way to find out.

Google Scholar will allow you to get the same results at your home computer. You just need to choose "library preferences" and add the University of Baltimore to the "library links" section.

John Hodgman at UB Dec. 1

John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise, will conduct a reading at UB on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m in Room 003 of the William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center.

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Posted by Michael to ub at 11/25/2005 11:22:00 AM

Finding Google Scholar @ UB

Do you use Google Scholar"? Google scholar is an interesting attempt by Google to allow people to search for "Scholarly Content" including books and peer reviewed journals. While not a replacemnent for the online databases available through your library, Google Scholar can be a useful addition to your search.

One of the main drawbacks of Google Scholar is that often it only gives you a citation or abstract, thus forcing you to find the full-text. Now a "Find It @ UB" link is available on Google Scholar to help you get the full-text of article which you may find there.

If you are on campus, "Find It @ UB" will appear automatically. If you are off-campus, you can still get the "Find It @ UB" links by clicking on Scholar Preferences and searching for "Baltimore" in the Library Links Box. If you check the "university of Baltimore" box, you will then see a "Find It @ UB" link with your Google Scholar Results.

How does it work?
When you do a search in Google Scholar, you will get list of results. If Google thinks Langsdale has the result in full text, there will be a link that sayd "Find It @ UB". Without the "Find It @ UB" link in the example below, you could only get an abstract of the article.



If you click on the "Find It @ UB" link, you will get a menu similar to the one you would see if you clicked on the button in one of our databases.



Clicking on either of the top 2 "Go" buttons will give you the full text of the article, coutesy of Langsdale's subscription. If you are on campus, this will happen automatically, but off-campus users will need to log into to the "find it" menu with their library barcode.


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Posted by Michael to langsdale at 11/15/2005 01:53:00 PM

Free Teleconference Series about Libraries

Langsdale Library of the University of Baltimore is hosting the 2005-2006 teleconference series from the College of DuPage: Soaring to Excellence 2006: Libraries, the Universe & Everything.


November 18, 2005.
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Google and Your Patrons
Speaker: Steven Bell
The myths and realities of Google are explored, along with its unique features and its impact on libraries. This teleconference explores the library worker's role in connecting users to high quality information in the age of "Googleization."

February 3, 2006
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Always a River, Sometimes a Library:
A Reexamination of Library Practice and Patron Service
Speaker: Rick Anderson
Rick Anderson explores the three ways the library profession is broken, and the four ways to fix it. He uses the Mississippi River as a metaphor for patron behavior, and gives us new and useful ways to think about our patrons.

April 7, 2006
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Serving Immigrant Populations: A Library Prototype for Diversity
Speakers: Bill Erbes and panel of experts
This teleconference begins with a look at the history of immigrants and libraries, and examines how to assess the needs of your community's immigrant population, including English as a Second Language materials, legal issues, work issues, and bi-lingual library resources.


Location
All teleconferences will be held at the William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, University of Baltimore. 11 West Mt. Royal Avenue (southwest corner of Mt. Royal Avenue & North Charles St.) Please feel free to "brown bag" your lunch. Llight snacks will be provided.
Driving, mass transit, and parking information, and a campus map can obtained at: http://business.ubalt.edu/prospectivestudents/location.html#drive


Registration
Space is limited so we urge you to register as soon as possible. To register and for parking tags and information, contact Shawn Wheeler (shwheeler@ubalt.edu; 410.837.4290).
PLEASE NOTE: We will provide drivers with a parking tag. Do not contact the University of Baltimore Public Safety department.

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Posted by Michael to ub at 11/08/2005 01:52:00 PM

[ub] Poetry Reading from Passager Books

Passager Books, a new press, housed happily at UB, dedicated to the creative life in old age, celebrates with a
POETRY READING
by 86-year-old JEAN L. CONNOR

THURSDAY, October 6, at 7 pm
in UB’s Thumel Business Center, room 003.
A reception and booksigning will follow.

O'Connor's new book of poetry, A Cartography of Peace is available online at www.passagerpress.com

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Posted by Michael to ub at 10/05/2005 12:22:00 PM

[ub] Tribute to Dr. Thomas Jacklin

Langsdale Library is honored to be hosting a Memorial Display for Dr. Thomas Jacklin. The display, located on the first floor of Langsdale Library, highlights his life and work here at UB. Dr. Jacklin passed away April 28, 2005 after losing his battle with lung cancer.

He came to UB in 1980 and won the hearts of his students and colleagues. He served on numerous committees, won several teaching awards including a lifetime achievement award, and was Faculty Advisor for Phi Alpha Theta honor society. He worked on projects such as Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project, Lessons from the Light Rail, and Saving the Community: Leakin Park and the Pursuit of the Light Rail. He loved UB.

Dr. J as his students so fondly called him also loved trains. He was a docent for The B&O Railroad Museum and wrote extensively on the subject of the railroads. He published many articles in railroad magazines and presented papers for organizations such as: National Railroad Heritage Preservation at Penn State, Preservation and Education Association of Railway Museums, and the Eastern Conference Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. He was Editorial Advisor for Railroad History in 2004.

History in the Roundhouse http://www.ubalt.edu/lehs/jacklin/roundhouse.html

A Conversation with Parker Lamb
http://www.rlhs.org/rrhistry/rrh189/interview.html

by Stacey Lee, Jacob France Institute

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Posted by Michael to ub at 10/05/2005 12:18:00 PM

[ub] Plagiarism on the rise

The UB Post reports on problems with plagiarism at UB. The article includes some ideas on how UB could confront the issue.

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Posted by Michael to ub at 10/05/2005 10:37:00 AM

[ub] Study: Learning Communities may help low income students

A new study from Kingsborough Community College provides evidence that Learning Communities can help students succeed in college

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Posted by Michael to ub at 9/30/2005 12:32:00 PM

[ub] Teaching online can take longer

A recent article from the Online Journal of Distance Learning Education provides a case study comparing the time it takes to run a class online to that of a face to face class. For the courses studied, the online class required more of the professor's time, mainly due to the increased amount of interaction with the students.

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Posted by Michael to ub at 9/30/2005 12:29:00 PM